Berks man sentenced to probation, community service for Lower Pottsgrove vandalism spree

COURTHOUSE — An Amity Township man who used an aluminum baseball bat to damage car windows and residential mailboxes during a vandalism spree in Lower Pottsgrove faces court supervision and community service.

Zachary Force Stone, 19, of the 200 block of Shadybrooke Drive North, was sentenced in Montgomery County Court on Tuesday to five years’ probation after he pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges of criminal mischief, possessing an instrument of crime and corruption of minors in connection with incidents that occurred in July 2011.

President Judge William J. Furber Jr., who accepted a plea agreement in the case, also ordered Stone to complete 48 hours of community service and to pay $4,234 in restitution to cover the damage associated with the vandalism. Court documents list 12 Lower Pottsgrove homeowners, or their insurance companies, as victims of the vandalism.

Stone was 18 at the time of the incidents and was charged as an adult.

Two Lower Pottsgrove juveniles also were linked to the vandalism spree, according to court papers, but because of their ages, information about the dispositions of their cases was not publicly available.

An investigation began about 12:16 a.m. July 25, 2011, when Lower Pottsgrove police obtained reports about “subjects striking vehicles with a baseball bat” along Doe Run Lane, according to the arrest affidavit filed by Lower Pottsgrove Police Officer David Slothower. Witnesses told police the suspects were seen running toward Kepler Road.

Authorities indicated they had received a similar call several days earlier during which time it was discovered seven mailboxes along Kepler Road were damaged with a baseball bat.

As police headed to the scene on July 25 they encountered a 1994 Honda Accord traveling at a high rate of speed on Kepler Road and observed three young males inside, court papers indicate. The car eventually pulled into a driveway on Kepler Road and two male passengers, Stone and a juvenile, ran from the car while the juvenile driver of the car remained with the car, police said.

“I looked into the car with my flashlight and immediately observed a black aluminum Nike baseball bat which was all scratched up,” Slothower alleged in the criminal complaint.

When police questioned the juvenile driver they detected an odor of alcohol on his breath and the teenager told police he had “one beer” and drank liquor as well, according to the arrest affidavit. The youth also identified Stone and another teenager as being in the vehicle with him, according to the criminal complaint.

The second juvenile eventually appeared from the woods but Stone did not return to the area while police were at the scene, court papers indicate.

Police alleged portable breath tests determined the two juveniles had blood-alcohol levels that were above the legal limit for those under 21. In plain view in the Honda’s rear seat police also observed a marijuana grinder that had marijuana residue inside, according to the criminal complaint.

Stone eventually appeared at the police station at 1:50 p.m. July 25 and provided a detailed written statement in which he admitted to participating with the two juveniles in the vandalism spree.

“Stone admitted to smashing windshields of vehicles and mailboxes using an aluminum bat obtained from the rear trunk of (the juvenile driver’s) vehicle,” Slothower alleged.

In the original arrest affidavit, police estimated the total damage incurred during the vandalism spree at $11,480.